(a) Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display is a type of flat panel displays that is widely used. The liquid crystal display includes two display panel sheets in which field generating electrodes such as pixel electrodes and common electrodes are formed, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the display panels. In the liquid crystal display, a voltage is applied to the field generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the liquid crystal layer, which determines the direction of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer, and an image is displayed by controlling the polarization of incident light.
Among the different types of liquid crystal displays, a vertical alignment (VA) mode liquid crystal display, which aligns liquid crystal molecules such that their long axes are perpendicular to the panels in the absence of an electric field, is spotlighted because of its high contrast ratio and wide reference viewing angle.
In the vertical alignment (VA) mode liquid crystal display, the wide reference viewing angle can be realized by forming a plurality of domains including liquid crystal of different alignment directions in one pixel.
Methods in which a minute slit or an opening is formed in the field generating electrodes or a protrusion is formed on the field generating electrodes have been proposed as means for forming the plurality of domains in one pixel. In this method, the plurality of domains may be formed by aligning the liquid crystal molecules vertically with respect to a fringe field generated between the edges of the opening or the protrusion and the field generating electrodes facing the edges.
On the other hand, the liquid crystal display of the vertical alignment (VA) mode has lower side visibility compared with front visibility. To solve this problem one pixel is divided into two subpixels and different voltages are applied to the subpixels.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.